Winona State University: Figures in Literature: Jack Kerouac

Instructor: Gary Eddy

Goals:

• To gain familiarity with methods for intensive study of a single author,
  including library and online research resources, biographical resources,
  close-reading analysis, and discernment of overarching themes.
• To gain familiarity with several genres open to an author dealing with
  personal material and the implications of each: confession, fiction, myth,
  picaresque, poetry, memoir. (Dept. Goal 4)
• To understand a single author's relationship to his or her historical
  context and role in literary history (Dept. Goal 2)
• To gain familiarity with an author's composition process.
• To understand the complexities of literary influence: authors and
  movements that inform an author's work and the influence his or her work,
  in turn, has on other authors and the culture at large.
• To practice writing in several modes: personal response, interpretive
  essay, research essay. (Dept. Goal 5)

Texts:
Ann Charters, Ed. The Portable Jack Kerouac. Penguin.
Jack Kerouac. On The Road. Penguin.
__________. Dharma Bums. Penguin.
__________. Big Sur. Penguin.

Assignments:
Response papers: Each text we read will affect each of us differently.
During the semester, you will write three short (about 3 pp.) essays in
response to a scene, theme, statement, class comment, etc., that inspires a
significant response in you. These are intended to be more spontaneous and
personal essays, but they must remain focused on the text or course
material or discussion point and not, say, solely on stories from road
trips you may have taken. They will include and develop a thesis idea.
Because these are best produced when the inspiration is fresh, you will
turn these in when produced. But I will only accept one at a time, so do
not expect to drop them all on me during the last week.

Essay: The final essay for this course, due at the last class meeting,
will be a combination of interpretation and research. You may choose to
do a close reading of a scene or poem, an extended discussion of a theme or
motif in Kerouac's work, or a discussion of Kerouac's method or aesthetic.
You may also wish to discuss Kerouac's relationship to other authors who
influenced his work (Celine, Wolfe, Sue, Holme, et al.) or to real life
figures who are a part of his texts (Ginsberg, Cassady, Snyder, Burroughs,
et al.). While your interpretive and argumentative skills will be the most
important part of this essay, you should also plan to do research to
support your thesis or interpretation. Note that the best sources on
Kerouac may be online. (7 pages, give or take).

Some starting points for online research:
Usenet News: alt.books.beatgeneration
UB Poetics: wings.buffalo.edu/epc/poetics/
Kerouac home pages: www.connectotel.com/marcus/beatfaq.html
www.gpnet.it/rasa/thebeats.htm
www.charm.net/~brooklyn/People/JackKerouac.html

Reading quizzes: I hate these. You hate these. Do the reading before
class discussion and we won't need them.

Presentation: During the final weeks of the course, students will present
an artifact from contemporary culture that best expresses the spirit of
Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation. This may be another book or poem or
other text, a piece of music, a film or television program, a painting or
sculpture, etc. The point is to ask the final question of the course: Is
Kerouac's work still relevant? You may, of course, answer in the negative,
but you will still need to present a cultural artifact as evidence.

Assessment:
Grades will be based on your performance as a writer and scholar on the
assignments above (90%) and on your preparedness and participation in class
discussion and the presentation (10%).
Response papers: 20% each,
Essay: 30%
Presentation, Discussion &/or Reading quizzes: 10%

Figures in Literature: Jack Kerouac
Gary Eddy, Ph. D.
Office: Minne 322 Phone: 457-5633 email:
geddy@vax2.winona.msus.edu
Hours: MW: 11-1, TTh: 9-10 and 1-2, F: 1-2 and by appt.

Syllabus: (Note: All selections are from The Portable Jack Kerouac unless
otherwise noted)
August
26: Read Kerouac's and editor's Introductions and "On Spontaneous Prose,"
481-490. "The unspeakable visions of the individual": and what is the
relationship between madness and method?
31: Read pp. 19-62. What ever became of the bookmovie? And what's all this
about The Shadow?
September
2: Read Maggie Cassady excerpt, 63-91. The past in the present tense.
7: Read Vanity of Duluoz excerpt, 92-139. When you're in the library, sit
down with a few random pages of Marcel Proust and Thomas Wolfe.
9: Read "On Bop and the Beat Generation," 551-573. Call KQAL during one
of the afternoon jazz programs and ask for, say, "Donna Lee" by Charlie
Parker or Thelonius Monk's "Ruby My Dear" or Ornette Coleman or. . .
14: Class canceled.
16: Read On the Road to end of Part 2, p. 178. Somebody bring a road atlas
from the 1940s. Or a current one.
21: Finish On the Road. ". . .rubbing his belly and licking his lips."
Hey, haven't you found a response paper topic yet?
23: More On the Road, the book that "sold a trillion levis" (Burroughs).
Read rhe Letters, 601-14.
28: Read The Railroad Earth excerpt.232-45 (Try it aloud!) , also the
Haiku, 469-73.
30: Read the Poems 453-77. "I demand. . .the systematic derangement of
the senses." Arthur Rimbaud.
October
5: Read The Subterraneans excerpt, 245-59. Look up Carl Jung's concept of
"anima" and "anima projection."
7: Read Tristessa excerpt, 260-77. "Everyone of us, born to die."
12: Read On Buddhism section., 581-97. But to keep some perspective, do
some preliminary research on Buddhism on your own. A reference work is
fine, but some others: Kaplan, Suzuki, Watts or, better yet, some Buddhist
poetry (T'ang Dynasty China is good or Zen poetry.)
14: Read the selections on reserve in the library by Snyder, Han Shan, and
Ginsberg.
19: Read Dharma Bums to p.94 (end of ch.12). The Taoist sages believe
that the two highest human values are freedom and order. They balance each
other.
21: Dharma Bums to 161 (end of ch 23). "Everything is all right forever and
forever and forever."
26: Finish Dharma Bums. "I have fallen in love with you, God. Take care
of us all one way or another."
28: Get yr hands on a copy of "Howl" by Ginsberg.
November
2: Read Desolation Angels excerpt to 376. Find out something about treeline
ecosystems or the Cascades or the Columbia watershed or. . . .4: Read
Desolation Angels excerpt to 396. Think about the genre question with a
handbook to literature in yr hands.
9: Read Modern Spontaneous Method section to 531. Where are the outer
limits of stream of consciousness?
11: Read The Book of Dreams excerpt, 532-44. What do you really know about
surrealism?
16: Read Big Sur to p 114. Again, the ecosystem is a character here. Find
out about Big Sur country.
18: Read Big Sur some more. John Steinbeck slept here.
23: Finish Big Sur. Your name or slogan here.
30: The Neal Cassady Realtime Event. Bring yr own story. "Yass, yass."
Presentations.
December
2: Read 573-578. Bring to class your favorite line we've read. Presentations.
7: Presentations.
9: Presentations